"It’s. Nice. Outside."

Jim Kokoris is the author of the novels The Rich Part of Life, which has been published in fifteen languages and for which he won a Friends of American Writers Award for Best First Novel, Sister North, and The Pursuit of Other Interests. A graduate of the University of Illinois, Kokoris lives in the Chicago area with his family.

He applied the Page 69 Test to his latest novel, It's. Nice. Outside., and reported the following:

Page 69 in It’s. Nice. Outside. involves a scene at a hotel in Knoxville with my two main characters, John Nichols and his special needs son Ethan. It is a transition scene – they are essentially checking into a Marriott, one of many hotels they stay at on a cross country odyssey and have a short exchange with front desk clerk. Where John and Ethan are really going has yet to be revealed at this point of the book.

The clerk behind the desk, a young guy with thick-framed glasses and too much aftershave, glanced up from behind his computer and gave me the trying-to-act-normal around Ethan smile. I appreciated the effort.

I smiled back at him. “We’d like a room on the first floor.”

He punched some keys, looked up again and nodded. “Thank you for being a Marriott Gold Member, Mr. Nichols.”

My chest swelled and I bowed my head. “You are most welcome,” I humbly said.

A lot is about to happen in Knoxville to John and Ethan. This particular scene is the calm before the storm, a rare respite for John on his long, painful, funny journey with his challenging son. Soon other members of the family will join them and together they will ultimately attempt to complete this journey together.

Visit Jim Kokoris's website.

--Marshal Zeringue